April 2009 Archives

Earlier this week I saw a performance that moved me. It was not grand and it was not hip, but it was astounding and as American as Apple pie, or should I say tea and crumpets.

Last night I saw a performance that also moved me. It was grand and it was big and there was not a dry eye in the room at one point or another. "The Soloist" with Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Fox satisfies that rare itch. A modern film that you actually want to talk about after the fact.

As for earlier this week, I present to you Susan Boyle, her humble, rich voice is not at all expected and that is exactly what ties her and Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (the main character in The Soloist) together. These two have been around for a while, forgotten in plain sight and now seen, as if for the first time, to all our delight.

Neither of these gems are what you expect them to be, neither are what they appear to be, yet both are going to move you and maybe, just maybe, this return to reality is what will be best of 2009.

For your consideration:

The lady: Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009
The movie: The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
and
The not wholly dissimilar story of Paul Pots - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2008

On a rainy April night 2009, The Juilliard Club hosted the Young Patrons of Lincoln Center (YPLC) and its members for "Modern Dance 101" with Juilliard faculty member Henning Rübsam in the amazing new Glorya Kaufman Dance and Rehearsal Studio that overlooks Broadway. It was a great introduction to the modern American dance tradition, its roots and founders, repeat with technique and movement demonstrations by Juilliard dance students and capped off with an elegant hybrid ballet/modern dance set to JS Bach. A great time in a great space gave me a chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones as well.

Relevant links:
Henning Rübsam dance company www.sensedance.org
Juilliard Club http://www.juilliard.edu
Young Patrons of Lincoln Center (YPLC) http://www.lincolncenter.org/
Glorya Kaufman Dance Studio at Juilliard

Today the most popular free app in the iPhone App Store is Skype. In a post I made in over a year ago (iPhone SDK means a smaller world) I waxed philosophical about the iPhone becoming Dick Tracys watch one day if VoIP was allowed, something Apple had blocked in early versions and later allowed in iPhone OS 2.0, but only over WiFi. Restricting VoIP to WiFi is surely a concession to AT&T in an attempt to preserve presious 3G bandwidth until they build out the capacity of their high speed cellular network.

So, here we are, a year later and one step closer to the reality of wide spread, easy to use, video conferencing on a mobile device.

BTW, rumors say that iPhone OS 3.0, due out in summer of 09 will allow VoIP over 3G if you get the new iPhone hardware also expected to be released at that time. Further rumors say that a built in, user facing video camera (ala iSight) will be part of the newest iPhone hardware. Now, I am not a rumor mill, but this is a great one. Let's just cross our collective fingers...